Stripped (Wolves of Mule Creek #2)

by Katharine Sadler

  “It's fine,” Lizzie said, before I could speak. “It'll just take me longer to get certified. I can move in with Roxy or Alice and I'll get a job waiting tables or…”

  “How close are you to your goal?” I asked. Lizzie didn't have a car, so she'd need money for transportation to get to her training classes.

  “Abby. I'll be fine. Really.”

  I shook my head. “Leopold came after me,” I said. “If I hadn't brushed him off, if I'd been nicer to him, I'd still have a club and you'd have the money you need in two or three months. If you stay and get pulled into Leopold's club, I'll never forgive myself. How much more money do you need?”

  “What he did is not your fault,” she said, her expression livid. “He has the problem not you.”

  She was repeating words I'd said to her when some jerk at the club got too handsy or suggested she was a cock tease. “You're right. But I still want to know you'll be okay. How much more money do you need?”

  She sighed. “I've actually almost completed the online course, and I've got the money to travel for the certification sessions. I was saving to move out of Aspens Whiten. There just aren't a lot of job opportunities here. I didn't want to tell you, because—”

  I was practically bouncing in my seat. “But that's perfect. You can move to Denver with Roxy. You two can get a place together.”

  “Abby—” She stopped herself, as though my words had finally hit her brain. “That's actually an amazing idea.”

  “And if you have any problems, I'll be in Denver soon and I'll be around to help.”

  She leaned in and hugged me, before racing over to fill Roxy in on her plan. I leaned back, feeling like maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay.

  And then Zed stalked over to me, exhausted and pale. “You think Carly was compelled to stick by that asshole Leopold? You think she wasn't in her right mind?”

  “Yes. I think she'll feel terrible about the way she treated you, if she even remembers it.”

  He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “If she'd gone with him… If you hadn't…” He met my eyes. “He didn't hurt you, did he?”

  “He wanted me to be fully aware of what I was doing when he bent me to his will. He just locked me in a dog kennel overnight.”

  He nodded. “Thank you for what you did for Carly. I'll never forget it, and I'll make sure she never does, either.”

  “What will you do?” When he wasn't a bouncer at the Booty Carousel, he worked as a graphic artist for several of the businesses in Aspens Whiten.

  “I doubt the vamps will come after me, but…” He shook his head. “I know Carly and I haven't been dating very long, but I'm hoping she'll move with me. I've got family on the East Coast. I just… I don't want her anywhere near that guy.”

  “I think that's a good idea. If there's anything I can do—”

  “Nah,” he said. “I've got this. Do you think I could stay with her? At the jail or wherever she is? I need to know she's safe.”

  “I think that can be arranged.”

  ***

  “She seems so happy that Roxy will be moving with her,” Zane said. “You did good.”

  We'd just gotten back into his truck after leaving Lizzie in her apartment to pack. I'd watched her buy a train ticket for herself and Roxy for a train leaving early the next morning. She just had to make it through one night in Aspens Whiten and she'd be safely out of Leopold's grasp. “There are a couple more things I'd like to do while we're in town,” I said. “Would you mind taking me to my car?”

  “I'll drive you wherever you need to go. Leopold is still looking for you.”

  I hoped he was wrong, but I doubted it. I also wasn't stupid enough to insist he leave me alone to run my errands. I had less than zero interest in ever facing off against Leopold again. “Can you take me to my place first? I assume I'll be staying with the pack for a while and I'd like to grab a few things.”

  “Sure.” He started the truck and headed onto the main street through town. I watched the familiar buildings as we passed them. I'd wanted to get the heck out of Aspens Whiten for so long and now all I wanted was for everything to get back to normal, to have my club back, to be leaving on my own terms.

  Zane turned down my street and parked in the lot next to my condo building. I opened my door and hopped out, but Zane was by my side in a moment, shoving me back against the truck and sniffing the air.

  “I smell vamps,” he said. “But the smell is…” He sniffed again. “At least an hour old. I think it's okay, but let me take the lead.”

  He opened the door to my condo with barely a push. The bastard vamps had broken the doorknob right off the door. We walked into complete chaos. Everything I owned had been shredded and thrown around like a chainsaw massacre had been carried out against my home. I checked my kitchen, my bedroom, and my bathroom, but everything was destroyed. Every book, every photograph, my laptop, even my shampoo and conditioner had been slashed. The liquid contents coated my bathroom.

  My heart pounded and I wondered if the one thing, the one precious thing, I had from my parents was also gone. I dug through my closet and pulled the small wooden box from the dark corner where I'd hidden it. Sighing with relief, I opened the lid. The necklace was untouched, the silver chain cool against my fingers. It wasn't worth anything, the chain and the locket were dollar store purchases. The tiny picture inside of me, at eight years old, with my parents, all of us laughing, was the most valuable thing I owned. I'd uploaded all my pictures, including this one, to the cloud long ago, but it would have crushed me to have lost this locket, this particular picture of them.

  I slid the locket back in the box, I never wore it for fear I'd lose it or damage it, and put the box in my pocket. I found Zane in the kitchen, a box of shredded garbage bags on the counter in front of him. “They didn't even leave us garbage bags to clean up with.”

  “We should call the cops. We need to report this and clean this place up or I'm never going to get my security deposit back.”

  He looked around at the mess that was my home. “Is there anything here that can be saved?”

  “Not a thing. It can all be replaced.”

  He studied me for a moment, scanning my face. Finally, he nodded, satisfied that I wasn't on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “Possessions should never become too important, lest we allow them to own us instead of the other way around.”

  “I like to live light.”

  “Then I say we report this to the police and pay a cleaning crew to clear this place out. We'll get your landlord's okay first, but I think the less time we spend in Aspens Whiten, the better.”

  What he said made sense, but I hated to run and hide, to walk away from my life because I was afraid. “Am I really just going to let Leopold run me out of town?”

  He stopped sifting through piles of shredded cloth like he was looking for something and faced me, eyes wide. “Do you want to stay in Aspens Whiten? I thought you wanted to get out of town.”

  “I did. I do. I just wanted to do it on my own terms.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “I get it. I felt that way when my landlord told me he would be renting the building to someone else and I needed to get all my shit out. Business had been lagging for weeks, probably thanks to Leopold, but… If he hadn't kicked me out, I would have hung on. I would have kept trying to drum up some business until I couldn't make rent. In a weird way, I'm grateful to him for forcing me out.”

  I rolled my eyes. I so wasn't ready to look for the silver lining in this situation. “And you've found something you love even more than running the yoga studio place?”

  He grimaced. “Okay, maybe that wasn't the best analogy. But I'm going to find something I love, I'm going to find something I'm even better suited to do. And so will you. Hell, you're better off than I am, because you know what you want to do.”

  I dropped onto a pile of shredded couch cushions. “Except I don't. I have a fuzzy dream of moving to Denver, a city I've visited ex
actly two times, and getting a high-paying job I adore, but… That's all I know. I have no idea what I want that job to be. I told myself I'd figure it out once I got to Denver, that I was only staying here to make sure the club and the dancers were in the best possible hands, but…” I sighed. I was talking like a crazy person. “I guess I'm the cliché. I finally get my wish and I have no earthly idea what to do next. I'm just sitting here wishing everything could go back to the way it was.” I tossed some couch cushion fuzz in the air. “I'm a bigger mess than my condo.”

  Zane sat next to me, wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and pulled me down onto my back with him, my head on his chest. “So, you'll figure it out. Just focus on getting one thing right at a time. The rest will work itself out.”

  “Says the guy whose pack is bankrupt and on the verge of starvation.”

  He chuckled. “I didn't say I had all the answers.”

  I snuggled against his chest and a tear leaked from the corner of my eye. I allowed myself to cry for exactly two tears and then I stood. “I'm never going to thank Leopold for this.” I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and dialed the police.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Want to tell me what we're doing here?” Zane asked. He peered through the windshield of his truck at the dilapidated trailer in a row of dilapidated trailers. Most of them looked uninhabitable, but I had a feeling someone had made a home in them.

  “Not really,” I said. “Can you just have my back?”

  He didn't hesitate. “Of course. I've always got your back.”

  Damn that felt good. I'd had boyfriends and friends, not a ton, but enough, but no one I'd felt as confident about as I did Zane, no one I trusted as much. I shouldn't trust him, I barely knew him, but I did. I just knew he was good people, trustworthy, as well as I knew my own middle name was O'Neal. “I don't know if she'll be home, but if she sees you with me, she'll—”

  “I get it. I'll wait outside, watch for trouble. You yell if you need anything.”

  I climbed out of the truck and waded through tall grass to the trailer. I'd been there once before, when Emily had just gotten back from her first stint in rehab and we thought she'd stay clean. There was no rehab for vampire junkies, but Emily had hoped human rehab for drugs would work. At first it had. Then the anniversary of her boyfriend's death came around and she didn't know how to handle the pain without finding some way to numb it. She'd gone back to the vamps. I knew what I was about to do would be as useful as banging my head against a brick wall, but I couldn't walk away and forget her. I needed to know I'd done everything I could.

  I knocked at the door and, when no one answered, I let myself in. The inside of the trailer was clean, but cluttered, with dirty clothes on the floor and empty take-out containers covering the coffee table. “Emily?” I called.

  I stepped farther into the trailer and heard the water turn off. I shoved a coat and hat to the side and sat on the couch to wait. When Emily emerged from the back half of the trailer, she looked good, her hair combed, her clothes neat. She jumped when she saw me, startled, then she slapped a hand to her chest and laughed. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her laugh. “Abby, you scared me out of my skin.”

  “I knocked, but you were in the shower, so I figured I'd wait here.”

  She nodded and crossed the small room to stand in front of me. She looked better than she'd looked in a long time. Her eyes were clear and her skin was a healthy cream, instead of gray. “It's good to see you. I'm sorry about your club.”

  Small town grape vine, there was nothing like it. “That's why I'm here. There's a new club in town and I wanted to—”

  “I know,” she said. “Leopold's place. I'm working there.”

  My heart dropped to my toes. “They're vampires, Emily. They can compel you to do whatever they want, they can take away your will—”

  She laughed, a harsh, raspy sound. “What will, Abby? We both know I've been a ghost since Bernard died.” Her voice tripped over his name, even after all these years. “I've had nothing, but the never-ending craving for oblivion.” She sat down next to me on the couch and showed me her neck, there were two perfect perforations there, the bite from a vampire. “I know you won't understand, but when I left your place the other night, I met a guy, a vampire, he offered to promote me to something better than a blood groupie. He bit me and I…” She looked toward the ceiling, a smile tickling her lips. “My mind cleared and I felt happy, really happy for the first time in… I can't remember when. He offered me a job dancing and I want to do it, not because he wants me to do it, but because I miss dancing. I actually want to dance again.” She shook her head, her expression one of wonder. “I've been bitten by a lot of vampires but none who make me feel the way he does.”

  Now that I knew about the vampire venom, her addiction and newfound happiness made a bit more sense, but I didn't trust it would last. “He can compel you, Emily. He can make you do anything he tells you to do. Anything.”

  She looked at me and I saw the shadows in her eyes, the coldness. “Do you have any idea the things I've done for the vamps before this? I'll do whatever he wants willingly in exchange for getting myself back, in exchange for being able to live without pain.” She shook her head. “I know you don't get it, but trust me, Abby. Trust me and be happy for me. This guy is different, he really cares about me.”

  Outside, a car horn honked. “I've got to go.” She threw her arms around me in a quick hug and raced out the door. I followed, having absolutely no clue what to think. I was so glad to see Emily happy, but I was terrified of what might happen to her.

  I got outside in time to see a black sedan peel away from the trailer park. Zane stepped out of the shade of the trailer. “Your girl just left with a vamp.”

  “I know. She says it's what she wants. She says it makes her happy.”

  “You think she's been compelled?”

  “I think it doesn't matter. She was a vamp addict one heavy feeding away from death, if she's found peace with this vampire I can't argue it might be more dangerous than what she's been doing. I'm not even sure she won't be okay. Leopold is a douche, but maybe… Maybe this other vamp will take her under his wing and keep her safe.” I knew I was grasping at straws, trying to be okay with a situation I couldn't control. Zane's skeptical expression let me know what he thought of the situation. “Even if it's the worst thing in the world for her, I can't stop her unless I kidnap her and lock her in one of your cages.”

  He pulled me into a sideways hug and gave me a squeeze. “Where to next?”

  “Maybe shopping for new clothes?”

  “We should drive to Mesa Bluff to shop for clothes. We've seen too many people, and Leopold is going to get wind of you being back in town and I'd—”

  “Okay. Maybe we could have dinner there, too?”

  ***

  “How about this?” Zane asked. He held up a loudly striped blouse with every color of the rainbow and fur on the collar.

  I walked over and stroked the furry collar like I adored it. “So soft. You really get my style.”

  His eyes widened for just a moment before he caught on. “I thought it would help you fit in with the other furry folks in the village.”

  I snorted and hung the shirt back up. “I think I've got enough. I'm just going to try everything on.”

  Zane followed me to the dressing room and sat on a chair just outside. “Show me the good stuff,” he said, with a grin.

  I smiled back. Even happy-go-lucky Rixton would be complaining about the hour and a half Zane and I had spent shopping, but Zane hadn't said one word of protest. “Why aren't you telling me to hurry up?”

  “I'm hoping I'll be rewarded for my good behavior later.”

  I sighed. “I explained-”

  He held up a hand. “You did and I said we shouldn't worry about the future, we should have fun now.” He stalked toward me. I should have run for the safety of the dressing room, but I was frozen in place by his hot gaze on me and the
sinuous, sure way his body moved. He stopped in front of me, so close our bodies were a hair away from touching. “Don't I deserve a reward?”

  He was teasing and I knew I could shove him away and he'd laugh. He wasn't Leopold, he wouldn't get mad if I turned him down. I bounced onto my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. He kissed me back without touching me, a sweet, tender kiss.

  When he broke away, he smiled and slapped my ass. “Hurry up and try on those clothes, I'm starving.”

  “I kissed you too soon, didn't I?”

  His grin widened. “Don't give the reward too soon or the good behavior won't last.”

  “How about if I offered you another kiss for a bit more good behavior?”

  He sat. “I'll consider it.”

  I tried on the clothes quickly. It was my last trip to the dressing room, I hoped. I'd already found undies, bras, jeans, t-shirts, a heavy coat, hat, and gloves. I just needed a couple long-sleeved tees and a sweatshirt or two. Just enough to get me through until I moved to Denver.

  Clothes chosen, I rejoined Zane in the dressing room area. I paid for the clothes and we carried them back to the truck and piled the new bags in the back with the other bags. I yawned as I buckled in. I'd gotten a bit of a nap on the way to the outlets, but it wasn't enough to really catch up on the sleep I'd lost, and I was starting to feel it.

  Zane rubbed my shoulder. “Tired, honey?”

  I stretched. “I'm okay. I know you're hungry.”

  He shook his head. “Why don't we get take-out? We can curl up and eat in bed.”

  I looked at him, the cab lit by the lights in the parking lot. “You need to eat before we make the drive back.” Mesa Bluff was a decent-sized town with an over-sized assortment of outlet stores, and it was about a two-hour drive from Mule Creek.

  “I think we both need to sleep before I make the drive back. Axel has to travel a lot for pack business and we've got a pretty good supply of hotel points built up. We can get a room. You can put on those fuzzy pajamas you got, we can curl up with a movie, and eat… What do you want to eat?”